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Prolactin-induced and neuronal activation in the brain of mother mice

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Abstract

Nursing has important consequences on mothers. To separate the prolactin-mediated and the neuronally-mediated actions of nursing, neurons directly affected by prolactin were visualized using pSTAT5 immunohistochemistry in relation to Fos-expressing neurons in suckled mother mice. In response to pup exposure following 22-h pup deprivation, we found a markedly elevated number of pSTAT5-containing neurons in several brain regions, including the lateral septum, medial amygdaloid nucleus, subparafascicular area, caudal periaqueductal gray, dorsal raphe, lateral parabrachial nucleus, nucleus of the solitary tract, and the periventricular, medial preoptic, paraventricular, arcuate and ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus. Pup exposure also induced Fos expression in all of these brain regions except the arcuate and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei. Bromocriptine treatment known to reduce prolactin levels eliminated pSTAT5 from most brain regions while it did not affect Fos activation following suckling. The degree of colocalization for pSTAT5 and Fos ranged from 8 to 80% in the different brain regions suggesting that most neurons responding to pup exposure in mother mice are driven either by prolactin or direct neuronal input from the pups, while the number of neurons affected by both types of inputs depends on the examined brain area. In addition, both pSTAT5 and Fos were also double-labeled with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in mother mice, which revealed a very high degree of colocalization between pSTAT5 and ERα with much less potential interaction between Fos- and ERα-containing neurons suggesting that estrogen-sensitive neurons are more likely to be affected by prolactin than by direct neuronal activation.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH OTKA K116538, the NKFIH-4300-1/2017-NKP_17, the NKFIH-2920-1/2016-VEKOP-2.3.-15, the NKFIH-6785-1/2016-VEKOP-2.3.3–15, the NKFIH NVKP_16-1-2016-0016 Research Grants for AD, and a Bolyai János Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for MCs. The authors also thank Nikolett Hanák, Szilvia Deák, and Erzsébet Oszwald Horváthné for technical assistance.

Funding

The work was supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH OTKA K116538, the NKFIH-4300-1/2017-NKP_17, the NKFIH-2920-1/2016-VEKOP-2.3.-15, the NKFIH-6785-1/2016-VEKOP-2.3.3–15, the NKFIH NVKP_16-1-2016-0016 Research Grants for AD, and a Bolyai János Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for MCs.

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  1. MTA-ELTE Laboratory of Molecular and Systems Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 1117, Hungary

    Szilvia Oláh, Melinda Cservenák, Emese A. Fazekas & Arpád Dobolyi

  2. Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, 1094, Hungary

    Melinda Cservenák, Dávid Keller & Arpád Dobolyi

  3. MTA-SE NAP Human Brain Tissue Bank Microdissection Laboratory, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, 1094, Hungary

    Éva Renner

  4. Department of Anatomy, Cell and Developmental Biology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 1117, Hungary

    Péter Lőw

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Correspondence to Arpád Dobolyi.

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Oláh, S., Cservenák, M., Keller, D. et al. Prolactin-induced and neuronal activation in the brain of mother mice. Brain Struct Funct 223, 3229–3250 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1686-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1686-1

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